Circular saws are well known and widely used in the building trades. Currently when making a saw cut along a scribed or penciled line, the operator has to move his head from its natural position to the opposite side of the saw in order to see the alignment of the saw blade with the scribed line. For the most part, this places the operator in an unnatural position while sawing along the scribed line.
To overcome this problem, the prior art teaches the placing of a window along the leading edge of the stationary protective cover of the portable circular saw. Typical examples of such windows are taught by Morimato in U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,627, and by Campell in European Patent Applications EP 0810 070 and EP 0810 071. This window on the leading edge of the stationary protective shield is only a partial solution to the problem. The operator still must place his or her head over the protective shield in order to clearly see the alignment of the saw blade with the cutting line. Although this provides a substantial improvement, the placement of the operator's head over the protective cover is still unnatural for the operator.
A circular saw of the present invention has a window on the housing adjacent to the stationary protective cover which permits the operator to view the alignment between the saw blade and the cutting line from a natural position of the operator's head while the saw is in use.